‘File 28/64 Exemptions from customs dues on oil companies’ stores’ [‎20r] (39/74)

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Q/CH.1/3207 (oontd.)
effort will be facilitated thereby. It does not seem to
be taking into account that the transfer of Company stores
from Qatar has been brought about by British Government
orders, designed also to facilitate production in better
situated fields and deny supplies to the enemy.
3. With reference to the Adviser’s para 2, we fully
acknowledge that the Adviser to the Bahrain Government has
always afforded us all reasonable facilities in connection
with our Qatar operations, and our debt to him in this
matter. These facilities, however, as far as we recollect,
have never resulted in any financial loss to the Bahrain
Government, and the reference to lack of reciprocation is
not understood. We are not in a position to make any
return, for instance, for the relaxation of procedure
allowed by the Customs Department. This relaxation is
based on common sense grounds, and also relieves the
Customs Department from unnecessary routine. In general,
however, we have made a point of carrying local purchase
to the absolute maximum. For the twelve months ending
July 1942, the Company spent Rs.l^ lacs One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand rupees in the bazaars;
Rs.17000 was paid to various Government Departments during
the same period; Rs.23000 was spent among the local
gardeners on fresh provisions; wages of local staff reached
Rs.60000; in rents alone Rs.9000 is paid to the Government;
in Customs transit dues on Qatar equipment Rs.50000 has
already been paid; through Gray, Mackenzie & Co. who handle
our stores, very considerable sums are involved in labour
and dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. hire. Enough has been said to show that the
Company has contributed to a reasonable extent towards the
general prosperity of Bahrain, and it always has been and
will always be our policy to do so. Nothing in this para
graph, however, is intended in any way to belittle the
obligations we are under to the Adviser personally, for his
many and consistent courtesies.
4. In the question of Customs dues now under discussion,
we are not asking for generous but only equitable treatment
in view of the war factor which is directly responsible for
the unanticipated movements of stores and equipment which
has already paid Customs dues of one kind or another. We
feel that it is neither generous nor equitable for the
Bahrain Government to ask for duplicate Customs charges.
This contention seems to have been recognized by the
Adviser as regards categories (b), (c) and (d) in that the
transit dues already paid are deducted from the normal